Date of Award

5-1999

Degree Type

Report

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Lyman S. Willardson

Committee

Lyman S. Willardson

Committee

Donald Jensen

Committee

Robert Gil

Abstract

The exploiting of water resources in developing countries is fundamental for stabilizing population growth, and promoting efficient agriculture. The development of water resources allows the utilization of modern irrigation systems and methodologies.

Recently developed methods to predict runoff from rainfall data are applied to a Bolivian watershed. A study in Honduras yielded a good response to the method that utilizes Moisture Availability Index (MAI) to predict runoff, but the coefficients of that relation could not be related to MAI or to the difference between average weather station elevation and average basin elevation in the Rio Grande Upper Basin in Bolivia. The available data were not consistent and sufficient, and the method only works for the region where it was developed. It is suggested that further studies be done of the method, incorporating as many watersheds as possible, and to give more emphasis to other available watershed characteristics, such as vegetal cover percentage. Vegetal cover percentage may help explain the amount of rainfall that flows to the streams as runoff. Actual measured runoff from the Rio Grande River Basin was used to evaluate the water resource development potential.

The evaluation of a potential dam sites on the Rio Grande resulted in the location of a potential reservoir site at approximately 63° 29' W Longitude and 18° 55.7' S Latitude. The dependable river flow was statistically determined and the climate data for the land immediately downstream the dam location suggest that the reservoir could supply about 204,000 Hectares (504,093 Acres) with irrigation water, provided the sole purpose of the reservoir is irrigation. The reservoir could generate approximately 44 MW (Mega Watts) of sustainable Hydro-power, with potential to reach more than 80 MW of peak power generation, if the irrigated land area were reduced to 160,000 Ha.

For prediction of floods, the maximum one-day storm was found to occur in the month of February in the upper basin. The corresponding 100-year return period storm is 60 mm, what generates 3,348E+06 m3 (3.35 billions m3) of water to be stored in the reservoir to prevent flooding the downstream land. For that purpose, and in the case of the hydropower generation mentioned before, a dam height of 105 meters would be needed.

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